I have been priveliged to hear judges themselves discuss Patrick's skating, and they rave about where he is on the blade in relation to the timing of his knee bends and pushes. He can actually increase speed without pushing by using his knees and edges. His edges are completely true without any incorrect bending at the hip in the lean. The timing of the exchange of weight when he changes feet is perfect and there isn't another skater in the world (and there hasn't been for some time) that can skate like this.

I would actually say that almost all of this is true of Takahiko Kozuka as well. His edges aren't quite as deep as Patrick's, but then, he doesn't fall on his rear doing footwork as often. In all other ways, IMO, his skating skills are every bit as good. Actually, I think Kozuka is better at accelerating than Patrick. And having seen them both live, I'd much rather watch Kozuka. As wonderful as Patrick's skills are, all his programs are constructed in a way that makes it hard to appreciate them, because all the moves are so frenetic and don't relate to the music at all, it's just as many brackets and rockers/counters crammed together as possible, so he gets a really high transitions score. There's no time to actually enjoy anything. The MITF are all there to get points, and that's it.

The main difference between their skating skills, IMO, is that Kozuka doesn't have a relentless, highly coordinated media machine and a famous choreographer pushing him to the judges, and telling them what to drool over and value. Patrick Chan has really amazing basics, it's true. But just like Plushenko isn't actually the best jumper of all time, the gap between Patrick's skating skills and everyone else has been built up into something bigger than the reality.

Last edited by doubleflutz; 11-02-2010 at 12:59 PM.
Reason: more appropriate wording

Another benefit Chan has received is being his nation's unequivocal #1 male singles skater. Had Jeff Buttle continued to compete, I wonder if Patrick's PCS would be as high as they are. Abbott has always had Lysacek to compete with in being considered his nation's #1. Kozuka has always had Takahashi or Oda to compete with in being his nation's #1. We all know politics exist in figure skating.

Another benefit Chan has received is being his nation's unequivocal #1 male singles skater. Had Jeff Buttle continued to compete, I wonder if Patrick's PCS would be as high as they are. Abbott has always had Lysacek to compete with in being considered his nation's #1. Kozuka has always had Takahashi or Oda to compete with in being his nation's #1. We all know politics exist in figure skating.

Nothing should be read into his Skate Chanada scores as it is clearly a silly and heavily political event catered to the Canadian skaters, and most of all their stars like Chan. Had the event been held anywhere but Canada, Chan would have been lucky to place even 3rd with everyone doing the same performances, and if he skates like that at Worlds in Japan he will finish 7th after a 16th place finish in the short program.

One thing about Patrick's skating that is perhaps sometimes overlooked is his speed. He is a faster than several other top skaters.

yes, he is rather fast, and that is one thing judges cant resist. Carolina, Yu-na Kim both are fast skaters and their PCS are through the roof. While I agree that speed often makes a program look much better and the skater appear more confident I can't say that this is the overwhelling factor in making a performance good or not. Patrick does not have great flow coming out of his jumps, as Nobu and Kozuka do. His triple axel gets a lot of ice coverage, but some of the other triples are not very big or powerful.

Although he has great edge control, he does not seem to be able to really get into the character of a piece. He skates to the music, but not to the emotion of the music. In that way he is very different than Sasha who always skated to the music, but also played a character inspired by emotions of the music. Patrick is not a performer, he seems introverted in a Johnny-like way on the ice (although Take 5 is a nice step away from that). Personally I perfer a skater such as Daisuke who will perform the music, not just skate to the rhythm.

I have watched Chan live. He is more impressive live than on TV, he does have presence on the ice, but certainly not more so than Brian Joubert or certainly not Dai.